LinkedIn 101

LinkedIn 101

LinkedIn is perfect for B2B organizations as the focus is on education, work history, companies and professional interests. LinkedIn focuses on personal profiles, business pages and groups. Using the advanced search features, users can target key individuals and companies with specific skill sets and knowledge.

Your objective on LinkedIn is to bring awareness to your company’s projects, industry knowledge and initiatives; it is to connect with other like companies and expand your business network.

You can track your number of followers, likes, comments, clicks on links and the conversations you are participating in.

10 Tips to Building a LinkedIn Power Profile

Make sure you have a professional photograph to upload. You will be the face of your company.

Complete all of your information, and don’t skip anything—you will not achieve as high a ranking.

Write you bio in the first person and have a picture in your head of who you are trying to reach with your message.

A link to your website will help you to build a strong following online and make it easy for potential clients to learn more about you.

As mentioned in the Blogging 101 section, keywords help people find your information. Add keywords to all sections, but especially the section about your business.

Include videos, slideshows, articles, images to build a stronger profile.

Influence: participate in key LinkedIn groups and exchange information, or create a group of your own.

Check for new connections and send a personal message.

Like and comment on 3-5 LinkedIn posts a day. Post 1¬ 2 times per day on your LinkedIn Page/Group.

Ask for endorsements and recommendations from colleagues and customers, and be generous with giving them as well.

LinkedIn Groups

Similar to Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups help to build small professional niche communities around topics and interests. These groups are perfect to create private or open groups where members can ask questions and share ideas openly. Determining whether you want to use Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Community pages largely depends on where your audience currently is online.

Build relationships

LinkedIn is one of the most trusted and professional social media networks. LinkedIn is also a well-designed database. The search function available with LinkedIn is powerful and can help you connect with key individuals and businesses.

Publishing platform

LinkedIn has just announced an update to their publishing platform. Originally rolled out for influencers and authorities such as Richard Branson, LinkedIn has a publication model where blog post articles shared by a LinkedIn page can receive massive exposure. LinkedIn has now opened this publication ability to all LinkedIn pages. This allows the blog posts, case studies and whitepapers that you share on your LinkedIn company page to be seen and viewed by anyone on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Best Practices

Like and reply to all comments in a timely manner.

Address any negative feedback and comments (don’t delete unless it is spam).

Update project or campaign information regularly.

Ensure all staff has an up-to-date LinkedIn profile and includes a link to the organization’s sites.

Include up-to-date links to website and all social media channels.

Do you have a question about LinkedIn or social media and how it can help your business? Leave your questions in the comments below.

Twitter is a real-time microblog, and is one of the most powerful social tools to track and scale your business and connect with individuals. It is a strong tool to share bite-size information with other organizations, staff, businesses, and the community.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you want to move up in the online ranks, it is best to use the Google tools that are available to help you and your business climb to the very top. And to receive the most attention for your video marketing, you need to be connected to Google+.

Social media marketing can be a powerful tool to help any business grow their sales, increase brand exposure and build relationships with customers. Yet, so many businesses see little to no success when it comes to social media.